His Irresistible Darling (14 page)

***

Pip screamed as she saw Jumal fall heavily from his horse and land awkwardly. She started to race towards him but was pulled back by strong arms around her waist before she could get over the fence.

“Wait, wait, Pip,” someone urged. “Let the medics do their job first.”

She wasn’t aware of who was holding her—only that they were in fact holding her up. She was sure she would’ve collapsed to the grass otherwise. She let out an involuntary sob as her hand shot to cover her mouth. She couldn’t take her eyes from the mass of bodies surrounding Jumal’s still body. Jumal. Oh God, she couldn’t even think of something happening to him. She’d never even had the chance to tell him how she felt, trace his lips with her fingers before kissing him, run her fingers through his hair. She collapsed to the ground, unable to hold back the tears any more.

“Pippa,” a voice called to her. “The polo players are pointing over towards you, honey. Maybe they are looking for his next of kin or something for some information.” Jake, she finally managed to acknowledge.

“What?” she asked, managing to speak despite her falling tears.

Jake bent down, still holding her. “Jumal. Does he have any family here?”

She wiped at her tears with her hand. “N-no, I don’t think so,” she uttered, shaking her head numbly.

She looked up to see a medic approaching, hoping with all her heart that he wasn’t about to break her heart.

“Excuse me,” he said formally. “Are you Miss Darling?”

“Y-yes,” she stammered nervously. “Is he—” she swallowed “—is he okay?” she asked finally, looking up to meet the medic’s eyes.

“He needs to go to hospital urgently. We’re worried about the possibility of internal bleeding and any damage he may have sustained to his spine. Do you know if his next of kin is here?”

She started to shake her head. “She’s his fiancée.” Another male voice informed the medic from slightly behind her. Kahlid, she finally remembered.

She was too shocked to challenge his statement.

“She can travel with him to the hospital, right?” Kahlid asked the medic.

“Oh right, certainly, Miss Darling. We’ve radioed for the air ambulance. It should be here any minute. We just want to get Mr Aldabbagh on a brace first—just as a precaution,” he quickly added, his hand raised in response to her gasp and frightened expression, “until we can get him scanned.”

“Can you tell me if he has any allergies we need to know about?”

“Erm. Yes, penicillin. He’s allergic to penicillin,” she answered quickly. Thankful that she’d completed and memorised Jumal’s medical insurance renewal just days ago.

“Okay, that’s fine. Come on,” he encouraged, holding his hand out to help her through the wooden gate. She paused and looked back over her shoulder towards Kahlid and Jake.

“Go on,” Kahlid encouraged. “We’ll take care of things here.”

“Call me later if you can, okay?” Jake.

“Y-yes, okay, thanks. Will you find Melina and let her know where I’ve gone?” she asked, running her hands anxiously through her hair.

“Yes. Now go,” he bit out, almost pushing her towards the medic.

The ground staff had cleared the polo pitch as Pip made her way towards the still-motionless Jumal. She dropped to her knees and sobbed. “Oh God, Jumal,” she pleaded, reaching for him.

Another first-aider approached her and pulled her away gently, his arm around her in comfort. “Sorry, miss. We need you to just step back whilst we look after him.” She allowed herself to be guided to the side as she heard the helicopter approaching.

The helicopter came into view, hovered for a moment before landing, then two other doctors jumped from it and rushed towards Jumal. Pip heard the instructions passing between the two teams of medics before one of the men nodded towards her.

“Miss Darling? Come along and we’ll get you strapped in so we can leave immediately.”

She was bemused as Jumal was carefully lifted onto a board, his head and legs strapped down, presumably to stop any movement of his body whilst they were in flight.

She sniffed again, trying to compose herself. “Can I hold his hand?” she asked the medic monitoring Jumal while the co-pilot strapped her into her seat.

“Sure.” He nodded, offering her a half smile. “He’s stable. Are
you
okay? You look a little—”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll be fine. Just a little nervous, that’s all. So do you think he’ll be okay?” she pressed.

“It’s too early to say but rest assured, your fiancé will get the best medical attention available, miss.” She offered a close-mouthed smile, her mind racked with guilt that they thought she was his fiancée.

***

A nurse offered her a reassuring smile as she offered her a cup of coffee, which she gratefully accepted along with the fact that the staff were all happy to converse in English.

“The doctor will be along shortly, honey. Try not to worry.” But Pip could only conjure a weak smile in response.

Pip had never felt so powerless. She didn’t have her phone to contact anyone. She didn’t know Jumal’s parents’ number or Faridah’s anyway. The hospital had let her call Matt who promised to try to get hold of Jumal’s parents for her, but that must have been over two hours ago and so far, nothing. She paced in time to the beeping coming from Jumal’s medical machines.

“Miss Darling?”

“Yes.” She jumped anxiously and took in the tall, dark-haired man sporting a pair of rimless glasses, white coat and a sombre expression on his face.

“I’m Dr Neri,” he announced, shaking her hand gently. “Shall we sit?” he gestured.

Sit? Oh good grief, why did she need to sit? Did they always make people sit down before delivering devastating news? Surely this wasn’t bad news? Couldn’t be.

“Jumal remains unconscious at the moment, which is to be expected after the fall. It’s the body’s way of coping whilst it assesses itself,” he told her in what she presumed was supposed to be a soft, reassuring voice. It missed its mark.

She nodded, twisting her hands together anxiously as they rested on her knees.

The doctor continued, “We have monitored him and performed a CT scan, and there’s no internal bleeding or damage to his spine.”

Pip’s breath left her quickly and her heart skipped a beat. “Right, thank God,” she offered. “So he’ll be all right?” she checked as her eyes darted back towards Jumal.

“I’m confident that he will make a full recovery,” the doctor assured her. “That’s not to say that he escaped entirely and he will be in a lot of pain. He suffered a dislocated shoulder on impact, which we have popped back in whilst he’s been unconscious. He also has a small crack in his clavicle and a couple of broken ribs.”

“What?” she asked, shocked by man’s calm attitude. “That sounds bad.”

He tilted his head slightly and pursed his lips before he said, “Well, it could have been a lot worse, Miss Darling.”

“Pip. Please, call me Pip.”

He nodded. “Pip. Jumal will make a full recovery after a few weeks but in the meantime he will be in a lot of pain as I said and will need strong painkillers. We are managing his pain with the drip at the moment.” She followed his gaze towards the stand at Jumal’s bedside. “It will take up to several weeks before he is able to do any lifting, but he will get there eventually.”

“Huh,” she said, twirling her fingers around her hair and nervously biting her lip.

“I promise you, Pip, your fiancé will be fine. You’ll just have to be patient with him. He won’t be swinging from the chandeliers any time soon.” He winked at her and Pip felt her cheeks heat in response to his joke.

“Okay. Can I carry on sitting with him until he wakes up?” she begged.

“Sure, but it could be some time. I’ll tell the nurses you’re staying put and I’ll be back to check on him again later,” he told her, rising and striding from the room.

“Shukran, Dr Neri,” she called after him and finally took a deep breath.

***

He was going to be okay. Battered, bruised and broken in a couple of places but okay.

She quietly pulled her chair towards the side of his bed and slumped down, emotionally and physically exhausted. Her eyes closed and she allowed her head to drop to the edge of the bed. She was unable to hold her head up any more. The adrenalin rush was well and truly over.

Pip picked up Jumal’s left hand in hers and gently rubbed her thumb along the fleshy bit of his hand, between his thumb and index finger. Back and forth—she found the repetition soothing. Jumal looked vulnerable. She didn’t like it; vulnerability and Jumal were two words that should never be in the same sentence. It went against the natural order of things. She needed him to wake up and start dictating orders at her, shouting for his mobile phone and laptop so she could make some sarcastic comeback.

Opening her eyes, she allowed herself the indulgence of gazing, uninterrupted, at his face. Perfection, she thought, and how had she never noticed the length of his dark eyelashes? They cast crescent shadows on his high cheekbones from the harsh, overhead hospital lighting. Her eyes traced lower to his beautiful full lips; she couldn’t tear her eyes away from them. Did she dare kiss them? Where the hell had that thought come from? The man was unconscious and anyone could come in—but there was no one here now, she countered to herself, and even if there was, she was his fake fiancée, right? Aggh.

She convinced herself that this would be her one and only opportunity to feel his lips against hers. Hadn’t this been exactly what she had feared never doing when she looked over his motionless body on that polo pitch?

Steeling her resolve, she involuntarily licked her lips and swallowed. She leaned forward tentatively in her chair, testing her resolve to do go through with it, ran her fingers lightly over his lips. No response. And his hand still lay idle in hers. She paused, a hair’s breadth from his lips, and closed her eyes before pressing her lips against his.

What could only have lasted a couple of seconds seemed to last a lifetime and she savoured every moment, the touch and taste of his soft lips. Her pulse raced, heartbeat quickened and lips tingled. She ached to feel his lips move against hers in eager response. She jumped as the machines hooked up to Jumal started to beep loudly.

Pip pulled away in case the monitors brought a nurse into the room, and she traced a finger over her still-tingling lips before finally rubbing them together.

“Okay, girl. That’s enough.” She took another deep breath. “You’re done,” she lectured herself begrudgingly.

Faridah and his parents needed to be here with Jumal. She didn’t belong here. She was an imposter. She stepped out into the corridor. It was time to get hold of the real deal and take a step back. Regardless of how much that was going to hurt.

Chapter Seven

Jumal came awake slowly. He felt like he was floating with the unmistakable scent of Pippa surrounding him, comforting him. Was this heaven?

His gut instinct was confirmed a moment earlier when he’d heard the soft tones of her voice murmuring something he couldn’t quite make out through the grogginess. He could still feel the phantom touch of her fingers on his skin as he flexed his hand and noticed the cannula in his vein, drip attached. Ah, so that was the reason for the fuzzy head. He needed to feel the warmth of her hand against his again. He yearned for it.

He closed his eyes again to recall and licked his lips to savour her taste. His brain had been unable to compute what was happening when he’d felt her lips press against his. His heart felt like it was about to jump right out of his chest. Her kiss hadn’t been a friendly, concerned kiss. He knew the difference. Her kiss was one of frustrated longing mixed with some sadness. His mind whirled. Could she really want him with even half the desperation that he had for her?

All he’d wanted to do as he felt her lips press against his was pull her to him and spend an age worshipping those lips, to savour and explore her until he knew her kiss inside out. To press his tongue against her lips, encouraging them to part, allowing him deeper access. But he hadn’t wanted to jeopardise anything, frighten her off with his raw intensity and desire to possess her fully, finally.

He forced his eyes open again and blinked against the bright lights. He took in his surroundings and noticed the beeping of the machines. He’d fought his body’s natural instinct to pull Pippa against his body and return her kiss, his treacherous heartbeat had raced and he was sure it had alerted her to the fact that he was awake. He was sure the only reason she had made such a move was due to the fact that she thought he was still unconscious. He’d gradually awakened at the comforting touch of her hand against his.
Heaven.

His right arm was strapped tight to his chest. He made an attempt to move but a pain unlike anything he’d felt before stopped him in his tracks. Stole the breath from his lungs. Christ, and that was with the drugs that presumably were being pumped into his body from the drip.

He collapsed his head back to the mountain of pillows behind him, exhausted from the small movement and wincing from the pain flaring across his chest. Flashes of the polo match came back to him and he groaned. Pippa and the kid, Yves’s smirk, Pippa and the slimeball, Yves and his horse bearing down on him to block him, then blackness.

Jealousy. He was ashamed to admit to himself that he’d been jealous and as a result, he was in hospital having done God knew what to his body. He’d been a hostage to his emotions. An emotion he couldn’t recall ever experiencing. In college, one of his flatmates complained about his girlfriend’s platonic relationship with another chap. Jumal had thought him weak-minded at the time. Now? Well, he had the broken arm or whatever as evidence of his stupidity.

“You’re awake,” Pippa exclaimed as she walked back into the room. Her hand moved to cover her mouth in surprise. “Oh thank God. You’re awake and okay. I’ll get a nurse.” She gestured wildly with her hands.

Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “Who are you?” as she was halfway out the door. She stopped abruptly and turned to him.

“Oh. My. God,” she cried. “You don’t know who I am? Really? Oh heck this is awful. You have amnesia. I don’t—” She was shaking her head as if in denial.